Monday, July 21, 2008

I've already posted my love for the great town of Llano, Texas so i'll spare you all the reasons I love that town again. Besides deer season the summer is my 2nd favorite time in Llano bc of the Llano River. It's a clear river with a rock bottom which allows of lazy afternoons floating in the river with a beverage of your choice.

Travis and I had the honors of one of our best friends joining us on our trip to Llano...Miss. Meagan Wilson. Meagan is a fabulous friend. She and I met over 7 years ago through our sorority. It wasn't until after graduation from Baylor and both living in the DFW area that we re-connected. She would do anything for anybody. She is always there for Travis and I when we need her. We love her dearly!

This is Meagan deciding just what to get at Cooper's...such a hard decision.

Plug for Megs: I'd also like to take this time to say that Megs is single, buying her first home, and has a wonderful job. She's also one of the most photogenic person I have ever met.

Sitting in the river with ROSCOE

Megs enjoying her last morning at the ranch

Megs, thanks for risking a weekend away at the Riley Ranch in Llano. We hope you will come back!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

I am getting my very own horse! He's a beautiful bay horse with 4 white socks, and a white blaze down his face. Travis is having one of his roping buddies continue to train him so that he can also be used as a back up roping horse for Travis.

The pictures make him look short, but he is one built horse. He's all muscle, which means he will keep me safe :)

So, i'm calling out to my few blog readers for name suggestions. Send any and all name suggestion for me.

the animal names already taken at our house include: Coon, Maggie, Roscoe, Parker, Lucy, and Sloan

Saturday, July 12, 2008

It's with great pleasure and a joyful heart that I report that Mr. Roscoe P. Coltrain has made it's way back to the Riley Ranch!!!! My day off work was Wednesday and Travis and I were able to make some flyers and put them up in the subdivision he had last been seen.

About 15 minutes after putting up the signs we got a call from a sweet lady who had Roscoe!!!! She had found him in her yard on Sunday and brought him into her house where her 2 toddlers instantly fell in love with Roscoe. When Travis went to pick Roscoe up the little kids cried when Roscoe was leaving...such a heartbreaker, but we are THRILLED that our little Roscoe is back!

Thanks to everybody who said a little prayer for our little Roscoe or even the sweet comments like the one we had from Jenny that said he's probably in Mexico on vacation with a cute little poodle :)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

As I previously mentioned Travis has taken up the sport of Team Roping. He started about 2 years ago, but has only entered himself in to 2 big ropings. It's so fun to be able to watch him participate in something he loves so much. He has been lucky to find a really great group of guys to rope with on weeknights.

Travis has improved so much since he started and I can't wait to be by his side as he enters more ropings in the future. I've submitted myself to being a rodeo wife :) In college Travis tried bull riding, and thankfully that phase of life is over with and I'll gladly support him as he continues with his team roping career.

If you are not familiar with team roping it consists of 2 ropers a header and a heeler. The clock starts when the header nods he is ready and they let the steer go. The header is responsible for roping the steers horns. After the header has roped the steer it is then the heelers turn to rope the back to legs of the steer and then they both pull out all of the slack in both of their ropes and the clock stops. Travis is a header, but is also learning how to heel.

One day we hope to be able to enter a roping together as partners (go ahead and start laughing at me now). Now, I don't intend on making it a hobby like Travis, but one of his wishes is for me to rope with him once. So, once my horsemanship skills get a little better (OK, a lot better) then I can practice roping and hopefully we can enter a roping together one day!

It's only fair if I enter a roping with him since he did run a marathon with me. It just might be 10 or 15 years before I'm ready to do something like that.

Below is a video I took last night at the roping pen. Team Roping is an event you typically see at the rodeo, so I'm sure you'll recognize it when you see it.

On Sunday we returned from our weekend trip to the Roping in Glen Rose to find that one of our dogs was gone, Roscoe.

Roscoe is a tough dog. Always wanting to protect us. Last week he killed a 4 foot rat snake and brought it to us to show us he killed it. Roscoe was Travis' first dog and has been around longer than I have.

We have looked everywhere but have not been able to find him. He's notorious for getting out and coming back, but this time he has yet to come back.

After talking to one of our neighbors we found out that they saw Roscoe, BUT thought he lived in the subdivision a mile up the road so they loaded Roscoe in their truck and dropped him off in the subdivision. Seriously, who does that? Finds a dog and just drops him off all alone in a subdivision not even attempting to see who owns the dog.

So, everyday we have checked the animal shelters with no luck, searched the subdivision the neighbors said they took Roscoe to, put ads on Craigslist, and made flyers.

If you have time say a prayer that Roscoe is safe and happy and that he can find is way home.

Everynight when we've gone to feed the dogs we've scooped 4 scoops so used to having 4 dogs and it's just not real that Roscoe is gone...

Friday, July 4, 2008

I hope everybody has a wonderful 4th of July holiday with your friends/family. If you are traveling, don't forget: Safety First.

We are traveling to Glen Rose for a team roping tournament. We'll have 3 horses in our trailer, so pray that we have a safe trip and that Travis does well. It's a pretty big roping with 800 teams and the payouts go to the top 20 teams. I'll be cheering on the hubs in the stands taking pictures.

One of the benefits of living on some land is that you can buy your own fireworks and shoot them off yourself! Since we'll be gone on the actual evening of the 4th we had our fireworks show last night. I tried taking pictures, but it's hard to follow them when they shoot up in the sky, so here is one decent shot...

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Waco and visit my 2 best gal pals, Abbie Cooper and Erin Freeman. We were roommates during 2003-2004 year at Baylor. We had the best times together.

Erin and Abbie

It's great to see how our friendships have blossomed over the past few years. When we moved in together we didn't know each other very well, but the 3 of us are so very close now. We have been through weddings, a funeral, break ups, law school, jobs, etc...I know we will be friends until the end of times.

This was our first annual Roomie Reunion. Reunion numero dos will be held in Houston in Erin's neck of the woods.

Abbie, Nat, Erin

We started Friday night at la Fiesta and finished the night at a cute little wine bar called Uncorked.

Saturday morning we woke up and worked out, ate lunch at Bush's, had pedicures, shopped at Spice, had a marg at Ninfas, and capped off the night at George's.

As you can tell a majority of our weekend was spent eating food....the reason is Waco has so many good food choices and when you don't get to go regularly you "have" to do it all in one weekend. We actually did pretty good and didn't let ourselves over eat too much. We each shared meals and I'm sure that hour doing cardio helped too, right? :)

It was a wonderful weekend with my besties and I can't wait until we reunite. Love you girls!!

On Sunday before I left town, I had the privilege of visiting one of my high school pals, Marci. She and her husband, Kyle, had a beautiful baby girl in December (Karlie). I got to see their house and play with Karlie, well hold her...I'm still in the awkward phase of holding kiddos...I'm afraid of hurting them or making their parents nervous the way I'm playing with them....

Anywho, it was so great getting to see the Davis family and catch up. They have a gorgeous home and I love Marci's decorating style (we think alike) and such a precious precious baby girl, Karlie. I'm so excited to share my birthday month with Miss. Karlie....can't wait to see you again!